Mandy was a casual collector of old books, journals, and other written material. During one afternoon of book browsing, she happened across a large, burnished brown volume with buckled closures and a raised embossed labyrinth on the cover.
As Mandy creaked it open, so too did the floorboards behind her creak with the presence of the shop owner.
“Hi there. I see you’ve got an interest in Old Mrs. Willow’s journal. She passed on a couple of months ago. Her kin stayed long enough to hear the reading of the will, then they left to go back to wherever they came from. They hired Mrs. Vee to liquidate the estate, and all of the written materials came to me to sell. You’ve got a good eye there, Miss. Old Mrs. Willow led a long and interesting life. I’m sure there are many adventures to read in there.”
As Mandy flipped through the hundreds of pages, she saw that it was filled to from front to back with a very fine, very legible handwriting.
“How much do you want for it, Mr. ?”
“Prince is the name, Howard Prince. Tell you what, make me an offer of what you think it’s worth.”
“Fifty?”
“It’s yours.” Mr. Prince smiled and winked.
Lugging the hefty volume to her car, then from the car to her desk at home took some muscle. She brewed a cup of her favorite blend of chamomile, rooibos, and lemongrass, lit a stick of vervaine incense, then sat down in front of the journal. Saying a small prayer, she began with the dedication page, which said, “To HP, one way in, and one way out.”
Not one for big surprises, Mandy read the last entry in the journal, which said, “My darling, I found another way out. Until we meet again.”
Fandango is the host of Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge.
Image is from alexlibris999 at DeviantArt.com
Tao Talk 
An ENGROSSING read 😉😁
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Thank you so much :)
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A fascinating, well-told story.
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Thank you, Fandango. It was quite a bit longer so I had to pare it down.
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Great story!
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Thank you!
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Always a pleasure 😇
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HP is clearly Howard Prince and I think that the other way out must be suicide.
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You’re right on the HP. But if think of life as a giant labyrinth where the only way in is being born, the other way out before the end could be suicide, but it could just be dying a natural death. It is a bit mysterious that her life ended just as she got to the end of the journal though… Maybe we will never know for sure.
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I’d love to find an old journal like that. :)
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I would too!
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Mysterious… just the word I was going to use. A good one. (k)
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Thank you, K.
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Ooh, mysterious. It makes me want to know more.
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Thanks, Nobbin :)
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